Without warning, VC17 is coming off the market
Oct 31, 2023
Boating Industry Canada News Week Digest recently learned that the very popular bottom paint, VC 17m from AkzoNobel would be discontinued. Several marine distributors and chandleries we spoke to acknowledged that there was a sudden spike in requests for the product as the word began to get out that it would be discontinued in our Canadian market.
Some components of the current VC 17m product are no longer available.
Re-coating a boat with VC 17m is much easier than trying to remove this very slick surface to apply a new product and this partly explains the rush get a supply while there is still some VC 17m on store shelves.
We reached out to AkzoNobel and spoke with Jessica Stewart, Americas Marketing Manager – Yacht at AkzoNobel.
She began by confirming that VC 17m will not be available in the coming year here in Canada but added that AkzoNobel has been doing testing and it is expected that the company will be recommending that their VC Offshore bottom coating can be used instead. She noted that there will be information coming out shortly on how to prepare a previously painted hull to accept VC Offshore, adding that it is not a difficult process.
There are a range of other bottom coats on the market but it is too early to provide additional detail. The reason for that is that the company is currently working on reformulating some of their existing products which may make the loss of VC 17m less of an issue.
We plan an in-person meeting with Jessica Stewart in the coming week. Watch Boating Industry Canada News Week Digest for a technical update on this subject.
